


A Brother’s Heartache

by SiredToFandoms



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Love, Damon Cries, Damon Salvatore Needs a Hug, Damon and Stefan love each other really, Hurt Damon Salvatore, Stefan Comforts Damon, Stefan Salvatore Comforts Damon Salvatore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24624499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiredToFandoms/pseuds/SiredToFandoms
Summary: What if Stefan had chosen to go to Damon, the night he dug up their father's grave instead of staying with Elena?
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Stefan Salvatore
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	A Brother’s Heartache

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I only just started watching TVD so I apologise if it's a little OOC (I'm on 2x4), but I can already tell Stefan and Damon love each other really. I don't own TVD or the brothers... unfortunately.

"I put my faith in my father, but Damon put his faith in me." Elena pulled Stefan into a comforting hug, but it was brief as Stefan quickly pulled away. "No. I'm sorry, Elena. I have to go, I have to see him." As he walked towards the exit, he felt Elena looking at his back with sad eyes. "Stefan, you don't owe him anything." She said. Stefan paused from his position at the door and looked over his shoulder at her. "He's my brother."

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Damon had the grimor book in his hands, stood up facing the fire as Stefan approached. As the younger brother walked the last 100m across the clearing, Damon inclined his head slightly towards him. "Stefan, little brother... what do you want?" Damon said quietly. Stefan sighed. Damon didn't growl his question, nor was there the usual sarcastic tone or smirk. Stefan had grown up with Damon, grown to realise that his older brother's irritating arrogance and sarcasm meant he was okay, and had learnt to listen out for when it wasn't there. 

"Why are you still stood there?" Stefan asked. Damon huffed. "Thinking... remembering the good old days." Stefan crossed to stand next to him, standing a metre away. "I do that a lot, too. This place does that to people like us." Damon returned Stefan's sigh with his own. "It's every time I come back, though. Every time I'm here, I get brutally reminded of things I'd rather never think of again." Then, Damon shook his head and took a deep, steadying breath. 

"I didn't know." Damon said about a minute later. Stefan hummed in confusion. "I didn't know she was compelling you; Katherine." Stefan turned briefly towards his older brother. "What?" He asked as he turned back to the fire. "If I had known that K-Katherine was compelling you, I would've done something. I would've stopped her. She couldn't have that. I wasn't until fairly recently that I figured it out." Stefan huffed. They lapsed into quiet, the sound of the crackling fire the only thing filling the air. Stefan had always assumed that Damon had known, that Katherine had told him or that he had figured it out in 1864...

"I didn't tell him." Stefan said to break the silence. "What?" Damon asked, sounding slightly frustrated. "About Katherine. I never told our father about Katherine." Damon's head twisted towards his younger brother so fast Stefan was sure he got whiplash. The older vampire turned to face Stefan fully, taking a couple of steps towards him. His eyes flashed with anger and confusion, his mouth opening to demand a reply. "A day or two before Katherine was burned, I questioned father about whether it was possible that there are good vampires. Father obviously got suspicious, and slipped me vervain. Then, when me and Katherine were having a... a moment, she bit me and... well you know the kind of effect vervain has on vampires. That's when father took her." Stefan moved to arms length away from Damon, who looked as though his whole life had been a lie. 

"You... you didn't tell him?" Damon said quietly, as though feeling the way the sentence rolled on his tongue. Stefan sighed and shook his head slightly. "No, no I never did. I wouldn't. I'm sorry, I- I shouldn't have brought it up, I was-" Damon interrupted him.   
"Why didn't you tell me?" He said, his gaze piercing into Stefan's eyes where they had just raised from the muddy floor. "What difference would it have made? Katherine was still thrown in the tomb, I was still responsible, and-" but he was prevented from finishing as Damon interrupted him again. "For _145 years_ , I hated you. Stefan, I thought you'd betrayed me, I thought you lied to me! I thought you didn't care about how I felt, about Katherine... Stefan, it hurt thinking you'd betrayed me like that. It killed me inside to think that you had turned your back on me in favour of our father. You were the only person I ever fully trusted, the only one I had ever depended on, and I thought you'd thrown that aside! Stefan, it would've made all the difference in the world!" Stefan hung his head slightly guiltily. "I'm sorry, Damon. I didn't know it would've effected you so-" again, he was interrupted by his older brother. "You mean the tell me that all this time you knew you had never told father, and you thought it wouldn't have effected my decision if you told me?" His voice broke at the end. 

For 145 years, Damon had hated his brother more than anything. Hell, he had vowed to make Stefan's entire eternal life a misery. For 145 years, Damon had felt betrayed and rejected by the one person he knew he could rely on, the one person he knew wholeheartedly he could trust. And now... now he was finding out that it was all for nothing? Damon had turned his back on his brother, trying with all his might to make sure Stefan was miserable for the rest of his days. He turned away from his brother, sighing in disbelief. He couldn't believe that all of those years of hatred and betrayal had been for nothing. As he turned back to the fire, Stefan nodded toward the grimor still in Damon's hand. "I'll help you, if you want. For real this time, I'm not going to stop you. I know how much Katherine means to you and who am I to get in the way?" He almost surprised Damon with his words. "I know you love her, I can tell. I wouldn't want you to stop me and Elena being together, so I'll help you get Katherine back." 

Damon looked down at the thick, leather book in his hands. He could have Katherine back. Katherine, the girl he had searching for and chasing after the last century and a half. She was the only reason he ever came back Mystic Falls, to get her back. But then he thought about it. Katherine would blame Stefan for her imprisonment in the tomb, would want to kill him for his accidental trick. And Damon knew she would succeed. Katherine wouldn't hesitate to drive a stake through his little brother's heart the moment she was free. "No. It absolutely destroys me to say this, Stefan, but I can't bring her back. Not after what you told me." Stefan frowned at him.   
"But, I thought you didn't care about this town, much less the people in it. I thought setting those vampires free was just a minor inconvenience to you." Damon shook his head and once again put the brothers at arms' length of each other. "No, I don't. But I do care about what happens to you, Stefan. At the end of the day, you're still my little brother." Stefan shook his head and looked back down at the ground. "No. Don't... don't not bring her back because of me, Damon. You love her, you've been chasing her all this time. Bring her back." Damon rolled his eyes at his younger brother. "I won't hate you for it this time, this is my own decision." He said, his signature smirk adorning his feature once more. 

Stefan knew Damon was just hiding behind a mask. "Damon..." He pleaded.   
"What, Stefan?" Damon asked, starting to sound slightly frustrated. Yes, I love her, yes she is all I've been after the past hundred odd years. But dammit, Stefan, you're my little brother. If I bring Katherine back, she will kill you without hesitation. So it kills me to say it, but she has..." he huffed out a steadying breath. "... she has to- to stay in the tomb." He said, and Stefan heard his voice breaking. Stefan looked up from burning a hole in the ground to see his older brother's eyes filling with tears. "Damon..." he started again.   
"No, Stefan." Damon deadpanned, his voice shaking dangerously." No, I won't trade you for her. I still... dammit, I still care about you, Stefan! If releasing Katherine means you dying then no, I don't want her here." As he spoke, Stefan saw a small tear trickle slowly down Damon's face. Damon wiped it away angrily and turned away from Stefan, but the younger vampire moved back in front of him. "I don't need some soppy, tear-filled moment, Stefan." Damon said angrily, trying and failing to smirk again as his voice shook and his sapphire eyes were still full. He had never seen Damon look so... vulnerable. He had a defeated look in his tearful eyes that Stefan hated and his entire body was tense. He looked so different compared to the usual Damon, like he was suddenly ten years younger, a mere boy. Upon noticing this, Stefan pulled Damon into a hug without hesitation. 

At first, Damon stiffened. He dropped the grimor and then it hit him. Hit him like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, his walls suddenly felt like a wobbling house of cards. Katherine was gone. Gone. And Damon had made the albeit right choice to keep her that way. He had truly lost her this time. For good. His house of cards came crashing down, then. Each card piercing his heart as he wrapped his arms around his younger brother's waist. Without meaning to, he let out a small sob, but that was all it took for another card to pierce his heart painfully and for whatever was left standing of Damon's walls to crumble to the ground. Before tonight, at least Damon had had the flickering hope that maybe one day he would get to see Katherine again, that he would get to hug her close again. This time, he didn't have that hope... she was gone. He buried his face in the crook Stefan's shoulder and neck. _Gone._

Stefan felt his shirt starting to get damp as they soaked up Damon's silent tears. He didn't mind. The last time he had seen Damon cry was when Stefan first learnt about the church and Damon had told him Katherine had been burnt. Stefan held his brother tighter, squeezing him almost protectively. He hadn't hugged his brother since 1864. But for now, comforting Damon was his priority. Stefan's extra comfort made another cry escape his older brother. A pain-filled, whimpering cry. Stefan made quiet shushing noises in Damon's ear, like the latter used to do when the former had a nightmare. "Hey, it's ok. Let it out, it's ok." As much as it pained both of them, Stefan knew Damon needed this. 

Damon sobbed into Stefan's shoulder until they became little more than sniffles. At that point, Stefan tried to break away from the hug, but Damon held on tighter. "No." He said, his voice shaking as thought he was about to start sobbing again. "Not yet." He whispered. It was another few minutes before Damon started to wiggle out of Stefan's grip, wiping his eyes and gesturing towards Stefan's shirt. "Sorry." He muttered thickly, his voice filled with raw emotion. Stefan shrugged, dismissing the wet patch on his shoulder. To give Damon some time to compose himself, Stefan spent longer than was necessary picking up the grimor, deliberately dropping it a couple of times before straightening up. "I say we burn this. There are still vampires out there who want it, and we really don't need them getting their hands on it. Too many blood-starved, angry vampires all out for revenge? Yeah, no thanks." Damon nodded and took the book from Stefan's hand. With a heavy sigh, he walked up to the fire threw the book into the flames. Stefan watched intently from behind him as the pages burnt to a crisp. Almost as soon as Damon had tossed the book into the heat, his body had tensed again. The defeated look was starting to creep its way back onto Damon's features, so Stefan clasped a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go home." He said as the last few pages burnt to ash. With a small smile, Damon nodded. "Yeah, home sounds nice." He said and they started walking back to the Salvatore mansion. 

They walked for about five minutes before Damon broke the silence, the usual sarcasm once again filing his tone. "Oh my god, Stefan, we just had a _moment_. Like, a real _brother's moment_." Stefan punched his arm, causing his older brother to stagger slightly sideways. "Come on, race you." Damon grinned as he sped off towards the house, without using his power. Stefan puffed out a laugh before taking after his brother, using his power to catch up but then running normally. 

Damon would always swear he beat Stefan, but they both knew it was a lie. Once again, Stefan didn't mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I hope you enjoyed that. This is my first TVD fic and, once again, I'm only at the start of season two so I apologise if it's OOC. Anyways, reviews and comments welcome :) (PS: I know I tend to overuse comers 😂)  
> Isaac :))


End file.
